Arsenal Wins

A little late in reporting this outcome, as I was busy the past few days but a strong performance from Arsenal winning 3-1 on the road at West Ham. After dominating the first 20 minutes, we fell behind 1-0 after a lovely turn by Diame, a flub by Ramsey and Mertesacker playing the cross rather than moving to block the shot. It was a majestic finish, but clearly could have been better defended. From there, West Ham looked a little more dangerous, but Giroud finally came good with a nice finish after feeding Podolski on the left and then making a lovely run to clip the ball over the keeper toward the end of the first half. Early in the second, the Gunners seemed to lose some flow and the Hammers had some decent chances, but Walcott came on and soon scored a goal before assisting on a lovely finish from Cazorla. Arsenal hung on and won the game convincingly, moving up to 5th before Sunday wins pushed them back to seventh. 

It's been too long since the game for me to do accurate grades, but I will say that Walcott was obviously impressive off the bench, not only scoring one and assisting on another but showing hustle and steel getting the ball back a few times. Cazorla was great again and continued to show that he is one of the steals of the transfer window. Giroud has been making good runs since moving to the Gunners and finally scored a goal in the EPL (his second overall). If he can start finding the net more, it could really help the squad, as one could argue he has already cost us at least four points by failing to finish (one could go as high as seven if they assumed he should always finish decent chances). Arteta was good, Vermaelen was strong, Jenkinson was all over the field, getting the ball back on the other defensive wing on at least two occasions. Ramsey was slightly above par, but blew a very good chance with a questionable pass across to Jenkinson when there were four Gunners in the box on a counter. Gervinho seemed a bit tired after playing a lot in recent weeks and Santos looked out of sorts after coming on for Gibbs. Manone couldn't really have done better on the score, which reminded a little of Henry's glory days. 

Overall, it was a nice comeback on the road and while not as convincing as one might like, showed the new Gunners, who appear to have more meddle, the ability to kill off games and a more well-rounded and dynamic attack than they did with the "one man team" last year (which was not as big an exaggeration as we pretended). It's hard to believe, but if Podolski and Cazorla continue to play at this level and Giroud starts scoring more, I think we are a much better team than we were last year (forgoing the two winning streaks and late collapse by Tottenham that kept us in the Champions League). It is going to be a real struggle for the top four this time around and the Gunners cannot afford to lose or even draw too many games at home, but we have been very impressive on the road (ignoring the uninspired 0-0 draw at Stoke, which is always a tough away fixture for us). We really should get maximum points in our next three matches before the date with Manchester United and will have a chance in that game if United continues to leak goals like they have until last weekend. 

The big issues for the club at present appear to be staying healthy, figuring out how to bring Wilshire back in slowly without ruining the flow and cohesiveness of the midfield and shoring up our defense on set pieces, which after looking good early has been a bit suspect in recent weeks (lest us forget both Chelsea goals came on sloppy set piece play by Kos). We have nice depth at a number of positions and real competition that means not performing will cost you your spot. While Sagna will clearly start again when he is at full fitness, Jenkinson has been more and more impressive as time has gone on and is a great backup. We have a good backup goalkeeper now that can be trusted, after his horrific performance at Olympiacos last year. We have three solid centre backs who can be shifted in and out depending on the opponent (Mertesacker not as fast, but better positionally than Kos). On the right, I'm still suspect of Santos defensively, but he is good going forward and one hopes Gibbs is healthy again soon. The midfield is plumb at the moment, with Ramsey the most average so far this season, but he is clearly improving (maybe spurred by the obvious competition). In the front, we have Giroud, Pod, Gervinho and maybe Walcott competing for the center striker role and Pod, Gervinho, Walcott and Chamberlain all able to play on the wing (some have suggested moving Cazorla there when Wilshire is healthy, but that seems a crazy waste of his talent to me). In any case, consistency over the next month will be key to moving forward in the Champions League and moving up the the table before the show down with Fergie and RvP. Go Gunners! (and the U.S. in our qualifier Friday)